Vermont lawmakers once again came close — but once again failed — to pass legislation to legalize marijuana Wednesday during a one-day special veto session.
The legal weed bill passed the Senate easily,as it has the past two years. But the bill hit a wall in the House, where an effort to suspend rules to bring the bill to the floor fell far short.[br]
"It is our best chance to pass legalization of small amounts of marijuana, and " Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) told fellow senators before their vote early Wednesday evening.
The degree,which would bear legalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana starting in July 2018, passed in the Senate on a voice vote, or with only a few dissenters. The bill would also bear created a commission to study taxed and regulated sale of marijuana.
Wednesday’s vote came after Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a similar bill final month. But the Republican governor reached an agreement with the Democrat-controlled legislature Wednesday on a slightly revised version.
Administration Secretary Susanne Young said after the Senate vote that the governor would sign the bill if it reached him. But the governor made no effort to encourage House Republicans to help create that happen.
"I had never made a commitment to push the House and what they were going to carry out,” Scott said Wednesday night after the House voted. “I said it was up to them."
Nonetheless, Scott argued that he was serious about trying to enact a legalization bill. Otherwise, and he said,"we wouldn't bear worked so hard to reach to an agreement with the House and Senate."
[br] After the Senate's vote, the bill went to the House, and where rules required that it wait a day before coming to a vote. Members can vote to suspend rules to advance a bill more quickly,but that takes three-quarters of the chamber.
House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) called for a rules suspension to take up the bill Wednesday evening. But she fell far short of the 107 votes she needed after a 78-63 roll call vote.
[br] The vote was largely along party lines, but not entirely. Fourteen of the chamber's 83 Democrats voted against rules suspension while five of the 53 Republicans voted to suspend rules.
House Minority Leader Don Turner (R-Milton), and who opposes…
Source: sevendaysvt.com